After Sleeper's fall
by Arakanga
Summary: The mysterious locket holds a horrible secret. Who is the Guardian of the Locket and what can she do for Karel? The Tomb Raider and Demon Hunter didn't know that the real problems have just begun...LCxKT, post AoD, no Legend, being rewritten and corrected
1. Prologue

**Title:** After Sleeper's fall (_Po Spáčově pádu_)

**Rating:** T (for violence and language)

**Category: **Action/Adventure/Romance

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, I do not own anything from Angel of Darkness or Tomb Raider. If I did, Legend would never exist and if it did, Alistair's head would take place beside the one of T-Rex, Winston would be frozen in the fridge where he belongs and Legend Lara would be mutilated and killed shortly after because of her "mommy, daddy" boohoo behaviour. Oh, damn. Fear the anger of Legend-hater! (I'd better stop now...ahem). However, I do own my OC's, that is: Anne Carter, Gherea, Jonathan Myers and whomever you may find in the fiction...

**Summary: **Set right from the moment when Angel of Darkness ended. Kurtis is recovering from his fight with Boaz and Lara plans to get back to Surrey. However, when they find out that Karel has survived, they have to cooperate again and unfold the mystery of the Locket of Eternity before the only living Nephilim takes the locket...and uses it.

Hello there. This is the first fan-fiction I´ve ever posted on this webpage and although it's already finished in Czech language, I've decided that before I complete it I will replace and rewrite the old chapters because there were many mistakes in them (yeah, even now there are some mistakes, but not as many, I hope). Please review if you read! I will appreciate every reasonable comment.

_Update on April 30th 2008 : The story is finished in Czech language, I'll try to post the rest as fast as I can. _

* * *

**Prologue**

He looked right into her eyes that once had the color of aquamarine. His eyes narrowed as he watched the creature that Kristina Boaz has become, feeling disgust and...pity. Kurtis hasn't pitied almost anyone in his life so the fact surprised him as he finally understood what was the feeling he was experiencing when standing above the poor scientist. Yes, of course, she has been his enemy since the very beginning, when he decided to fight in the War of Shadows. It was, after all, her fault, that he had to deal with Proto Nephilim and go trough the Sanatorium. But...

_But what, you idiot?_ the quiet voice whispered in his head. _Shot her! She wouldn't spare your life, she's-_

He rolled his eyes at the thought. The last thing he needed now was another bloody conversation with himself. _Shut up!  
_  
Seeing that she was too weak to move or defend herself (or itself?), he holstered his Boran X and started walking away.

_Stab._

It has happened so quickly that he didn't even have time to turn around and face her. In the azure eyes flashed surprise and pain. So much pain...  
He was shocked but there was more anger than agony - especially when the voice whispered again, _Don't say I didn't warn you._ He abruptly spun around, hardly holding the balance.

Kurtis waved his hand and Chirugai found it's target, cutting the monster's neck. And as it's head fell to the metal floor with a silent _thud!_, he dropped to his knees. A silent moan escaped his lips, his hand clutching the injureed stomach, blood slowly appearing on his palm. The arena became blurry. He couldn't hear anything but his gasps and heartbeat that was slowly but surely starting to slow down.

"Ya were fuckin' right, you little bastard," he whispered to the voice inside his head.

_Good of you to admit it._

"I thought you've always liked the dangerous girls though."

_Ahem. To be more precise: sexy and dangerous- yes. Lunatic, mutated and dangerous- not. _

He laughed at this, wondering if many people had such a stupid inner voice. After all, he would soon have an eternity to find out. The last sound that he heard when the darkness finally surrounded him was a scream...and an explosion. His lips moved slightly, forming a name.

"Lara..."


	2. Getting out of Strahov

_I have to warn anyone that has read the Czech version- although the plot is the same, some things are different._

_And no, I still do not own Tomb Raider. If I did, you would see the LARA CROFT BY CRYSTAL DYNAMICS MURDERED BRUTALLY title in the newspaper._

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**Getting out of Strahov**

Lara Croft slowly woke up. She was lying on the ground, near the door to Eckhardt's laboratories that looked like they will soon fall apart and become just a mass of wood and metal. Beside her there was her backpack – by the look of it, she could tell it didn't suffer any major damage, which pleased her. She thought that she may need the bandages soon, that is, when she'll be able to get on her feet again.

Which wouldn't be anytime soon. Her whole body hurt like a steamroller rode over her few times, jumped on her back, tap-danced on her stomach and then returned to say thanks to the audience. _What a comparision, Croft! _she thought and slowly got up, her legs shaking so badly she had to lean against the wall.

„Good," she breathed a sigh of relief when her feet finally stopped acting like mad. „So, now I- oh, damn," a curse escaped her lips as she realized that she doesn't remember a thing from what has happened since the moment she put Sanglyph on Sleeper's leg.

_Someone's getting a bit sclerosal around here. _

She ignored the thought that creeped into her mind and focused on the last moments of the fight. The memories came back, slowly. Sleeper's face wried in agony. Karel's cry of anger and pain (_the bastard most surely deserved it_). She tried to close the main door, hoping that the explosion wouldn't hurt her that much then. Unfortunately, as the white light flooded the whole room, she was slammed at the wall by the shock wave. „And then I've probably fainted," she mumbled.

Right. Karel and Sleeper should be dead then. So there were only two questions troubling her now. The first one: Is Kurtis alive? The second one: How the hell was she supposed to explain to the police what has happened here? Seriously, if she came to the police station and started like, „I've been tracking this more than five hundred years old guy who was the real monster that killed all the people, but no, I didn't have the oh-so-desired pleasure of murdering him with my own bare hands, the last living member of the half-angelic race has stabbed him trough his head, then we had a little argument and he started flying around, shouting something about stupid mortals and so on...and then he just exploded, would you believe it? So I'm actually innocent (apart from shooting about...ahem...let's say tens of soliders, but that doesn't count...), as you see. Can I go now?"

Nope, that wasn't going to work.

--

The sun was shining to the great arena as she entered it, eyeing the red liquid on the ground, or more precisely- the strange weapon lying there. Lara knew that it was Kurtis's, after all, he disarmed her (and almost chopped her head off) with this disc in Louvre. She touched the cold metal, feeling the shivers runing down her spine. Instantly, she picked it up and wasn't even surprised when the weapon moved and turned her toward the dark tunnel. A light smile tugging at the corners of her lips, she slowly started to walk there.

She might have had some doubts about Kurtis, after Karel changed into his form. But there was something wrong, something that just didn't seem natural. Although Nephilim's appearence has been the same as Kurtis's, he just didn't act like him. _After all, _Lara thought as her eyes were getting used to the dark, _I may give it a shot. If it was Karel, he's gone. If it was Kurtis...well...either he is dead too, or he's somewhere here, waiting for me. Or I hope so. _

„Kurtis?" she called out anxiously.

There was no reply, but a distant sound of gasping could be heard. She ran foward, behind the corner...where Kurtis was sitting, looking very pale, from what she could see in the shadow. Before him was a human body, obviously dead. She didn't care about it right now- kneeling beside Demon Hunter, she noticed the blood on his hands. _Looks like the bandages will be needed sooner than I thought. _

He opened his eyes and tried to smirk in a way that almost drove her mad in the Aquatic research area. It didn't work though- she was too busy with looking for the medipack in her backpack. Her head rose only when he spoke to her, in a raspy voice.

„Very nice of ya to be round..."

She half smiled in relief. „You're welcome, if that was a masked Thank you." Then her face became serious again. „I thought you were dead when I saw you."

He quirked an eyebrow at Lara. „I'm very sorry disappoint ya, but not yet."

The Tomb Raider decided not to answer and turned her head to the body lying behind her instead. „Who's this?"

„Dunno. He didn't exactly come to chat with me 'bout his family, introducing himself politely and offering me a cup of tea-"

„Shut up and get your T-shirt from the wound so I can stop the bleeding," she rolled her eyes at him. Ignoring her sarcastic tone, he looked her right in the eyes. Their gaze met and she knew what he was going to ask about even before his mouth opened.

„Eckhardt?"

„He's dead. And so will you, if you won't bloody shut up," she threatened him.

„I-"

„Look, am I supposed to wrap your mouth in the bandage instead of the wound, or will you just stop talking willingly? I'll tell you everything once we're out of here." Her only answer a heavy sigh as he removed the fabric from his stomach. Lara whistled quietly, looking at the injury. „I can't think of any way how a human being could possibly survive this," she whispered.

„Are you callin' me an alien?"

„No, I'm calling you an idiot because you just can't be quiet for five minutes!" she snarled at him. „Done. So, let's go. I hope you're able to walk on your own, because once we're out of here, I'm getting arrested."

Kurtis got to his knees, testing his stength. „Looks like you've been pretty busy getting yourself into trouble."

„Yeah, even that you locked me into that room didn't help."

„And I've tried so hard..."

„Shut up."

Now it was his turn to smirk at her comment. „A bit repetitive, aren't we?"

„No. And I'm going to sew your lips together if you don't stop."

„Sounds good," he mumbled as he pushed himself to his feet. Tottering, he tried if he's able to walk, collapsing after a few steps and leaning against the wall. Lara just sighed and supported him. Immediately, he protested. „That's fine, I can-"

„One more sentence as stupid as this one and I'll really do what I've promised you before. Look, I don't give a damn about your dignity. Just imagine that I'm a male, if that helps you to accept my help." With that, she grabbed his hand and started walking from the Strahov building, pretending that she overheard his last remark.

„That is's not that hard to do."

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_Like? Didn't like? In every case, I'd appreciate a review on the rewritten chapter._


	3. Conversation

_Nope. I don't own them at all._

**

* * *

**

**Conversation**

Two days have gone by. Lara was on her way to the Thomayer's Hospital to visit Kurtis, and, to thank him for helping her to explain everything to the police (of course, in a believable way. That meant that 90 were...ahem, lies). However, thanks to him and his ready tongue she was free and all the charges were dropped. In what they told police, Kurtis „explained" that the real Monster was Eckhardt (luckily, some of the proofs weren't destroyed by the explosion) – that was one of the few rare occasins he didn't lie about anything – and that one of his employees revolted and they killed each other in a fight. As stupid as it sounded to both adventurers, the police believed this story. There was only one problem about that: Karel's body hasn't been found yet.

_I'll have to take care of that later,_ she thought to herself. _There's no chance of him surviving the explosion. _She relaxed a bit, enjoying the feel of her old backpack, that was returned to her by the police. The item meant a lot to her, she had it on almost every adventure since the Cambodia one with Werner...

_Werner..._ It was so strange to think about him, now that he was gone. A troublemaker he was, she could never imagine that he would die like this.

She shook her head and looked around, realizing that she almost forgot the name of the stop on which she was supposed to get out of the bus. The traffic in Prague was crazy (_but not as crazy as in London_) and the names were more strange than she would have imagined in her wildest dreams. Luddick was not obviously a typical Czech name.

She did not even know near which bus stop the hospital was located. After asking few people, one of them was able to tell her to go to „Nemocnice Krč", that after getting out from the bus she would see the building right across the road.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips. This was going to be a long day.

--

When she entered the room in which Kurtis was supposed to be, his appearance surprised her a bit. Sure, he had suffered a serious injury, but still...he was pale and looked very tired. However, his face lit up when she sat down to him, smiling slightly.

„How are you doing, Yank?"

„Have been better," he sighed. „By the way, how do ya know-"

„Hearing the accent..."

He smirked at that. „I should have guessed." He made a brief pause. „So, what have ya been doin' in those two days?"

„Not that much. Honestly, I feel quite...well, like a tourist." Seeing his quizzical look, she continued. „Well, they didn't let me visit you sooner, so I've been just walking about, taking a look at some monuments and...ahem, sleeping a lot. I've not slept in a real bed since the Paris incident."

Kurtis laughed abruptly at this. „Yeah, the same for me. Still think this is just _Another dark, cold city_?"

„You little spying blighter!" she shot him an edgy look. He just shrugged his shoulders apologeticaly. „Well...it is another dark, cold and small city, if you ask me. Nice sights though. Too bad I haven't been here before. I could have enjoyed my stay much more if it weren't for the-"

„...Monster murders, Cabal, Eckhardt..."

„Exactly."

He cleared his throat. „Talking about Eckhardt..."

„Don't worry about that, I've promised to tell you everything."

„Good," he nodded. „So let's begin with the Dark Alchymist bastard."

„Sure. So...well, he's dead as much as he could ever be. Unfortunately, I hadn't been given the pleasure of killing him. Does the name Joachim Karel mean anything to you?"

Kurtis's expression darkened. „It bloody does," he hissed. „He was there, when they murdered my father. He was the second one on my hate list."

She touched his shoulder briefly. „I'm sorry to hear that. However, he's in the same state of health as Eckhardt is. It was easier than I've expected, considering the fact he was a Nephilim-"

„What?!"

She looked at him questioningly. „Yeah. After he used the third Shard to kill Eckhardt, he told me so and...well, changed..."

„Did he have a marked pale skin, white hair...?"

„Yeah."

„How did he die then?"

She told him everything about getting the Sanglyph, pressing the artefact to Sleeper's leg and the explosion.When she finished, Kurtis gave her an anxious look.

„Tell me. Did you see the corpse?" he asked her, his eyes clearly begging her to say _Yes_.

The archeologist shook her head. „No. But I'm pretty sure that he couldn't have survived that."

He leaned back, not entirely convinced. „I'd rather be sure. But for now, I think ya may be right. Did he try those I-am-this-one-or-another-helping-you-all-along tricks on you?"

Lara nodded. „He changed into several people I've met. Including you."

The Demon Hunter laughed at that. „Then it had to be clear he's fake. I mean, how could he imitate such a charming, intelligent and-" He didn't get any farther because his companion erupted into laughter.

„Especially your sense of humour is inimitable."

At that moment the door opened and nurse entered the room, bringing Kurtis's lunch. He eyed the dish suspiciously and after she left, he stared at the food, obviously scared. Lara assessed the lunch with a look of disbelief. „Ahem...enjoy it. It looks very...well...delicious?"

„Why, thank you!" he muttered and tasted a bit, immediately starting to cough, trying to speak between and not to vomit at the same time. „That was...even worse...than the Boaz monster, damn! I wonder...I wonder why the hell are they tryin'...to kill me even here!"

„The hospitals aren't safe anymore."

„I see." He reached for a glass of water, carefully drinking from it. „No poison? What a surprise!"

She smiled at him kindly. „Do you want me to get some for you?"

„You really want me dead, don't you..."

„Let's see...after the Louvre thing..." She had to laugh at his expression. Then she got serious again. „So, what are you going to do now?"

„I was planning to eat this beastliness."

„What a funny Yank. I was talking about your plans after getting out of here."

„I'm not that stupid, you know!" he smirked at her _prove it!_ look. „To be honest, I've got no idea. As you've guessed, I'm from USA. Utah. But I've been living in Paris for most of my life. It would be quite hard to fight the War of Shadows trough letters or e-mails..."

„Really."

„Anyway, once I'm healed, I plan to look for a new job...well, anywhere," he sighed. „What about ya?"

„Well, I plan to return back to England, naturally."

„I see..."

They both remained silent for a while. Lara was thinking about what she just said. Yes, she was going to return back to Surrey for a while. But what next? To start the tomb raiding again? She highly doubted so, after the Egypt experience. After the darkness, whispers of the cursed ones and...

Shaking the memories off her mind, she turned to Kurtis. „I have to go now. But don't be that happy, I'll return tomorrow." _Probably to find out who exactly you are. Too many questions about you are still unanswered._

„Too bad," he laughed, looking almost like he read her thoughts.

„Have I ever told you that I'm gonna kill you? Slowly and painfully?

„Auch..."

She just smirked at him and headed for the door.

* * *

_Well, the same as before. I hope you've liked it and PLEASE, review it. _


	4. About the story

Hey everybody. The previous three chapters were updated, please, check them out if you like. I will translate everything else soon.

Thanks for your patience!


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